Kareena Dhillon
Online Features Editor
Mira Costa’s girls tennis team fell behind the curve after losing in the second round of CIF to University High School with a final score of 15-3.
Costa and the University High School of Irvine battled it out on the courts at Costa on Friday November 3rd. However they ultimately fell to University in the second round of Division 1 playoffs. Freshman Audrey Vo took a victory in her singles match 6-3. Shortly after, doubles partners freshman Kacey Feng and sophomore Olga Nagy won two matches 6-3 and 6-0.
“I think we did the best we could out there,” junior Kendall Lebbin said. “Everybody put a lot of time and effort into this season and we bonded a lot as a team.”
Girls tennis finished their season ranked as #11 in Southern California and will not be moving forward in CIF. It was definitely a great accomplishment for Costa and the team to have that ranking according to coach Joe Ciasulli.
“Last year we graduated quite a few very good tennis players,” Ciasulli said. “That includes three of the most successful players to ever wear the Mustang uniform and they were hard to replace.”
This season was a rebuilding year for the team because most of their starting players last year were seniors. The team will work on everyone’s individual needs and players will focus on specific things during the off season to make next year even better, according to Ciasulli.
“I am hopeful that next year will be even better,” Ciasulli said. “Hopefully the girls will work on their games over the next six months. Improvement comes from repetition and competition and our players need more of both.”
As Costa battled it out against the #6 ranked team, several of their first seed players were able to score a win. Freshman Audrey Vo took a victory in her singles match 6-3. Shortly after, doubles partners freshman Kacey Feng and sophomore Olga Nagy won two matches 6-3 and 6-0.
“Our match versus University was a challenging one,” Lebbin said. “We all played to the best of our abilities but in the end, University had some really strong players.”
However this year’s team did very well. The experience gained this year through players Vo, Nagy, Feng, and sophomores Lindsay Giese and Kiki Daviduk helped to be a good core to build around said Ciasulli.
“I think Costa did pretty well this year,” Feng said. “We worked really hard and had a lot of fun. I am looking forward to next year because we have a couple of really good incoming freshman that will help the team a lot. I think next year we will have a very strong team and do well.”
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